Following their collaboration in SPLIT SECOND ex-Secret Service agents Sean King & Michelle Maxwell have gone into partnership & are investigating the robbery of some secret documents at the residence of the incredibly wealthy Battle family. It seems like a straightforward case of domestic burglary but soon they begin to suspect links to larger more terrifying events now shaking the prosperous town of Writghtsburg.. . The unidentified corpse of an attractive young woman turns up in the woods; two high school kids one shot in the back the other in the face are found dead in their car; a successful lawyer is discovered stabbed to death in her own home. A serial killer is on the loose. The murderer kills in the manner of famous killers of the past but takes care to leave a stopped watch at the scene of each crime -- corresponding to the victim's position on his hit list. As the killing spree escalates it seems that the fractured Battle family are somehow involved & Maxwell & King suddenly find themselves racing to solve an intricate puzzle one that is full of tantalizing clues but barren of solid evidence & one that is leaving even the FBI confounded. & all the while the body count is rising.. .